Published: 2021-12-29

Being as an Element of Nature in Presocratic Philosophy

Rafał Katamay Logo ORCID

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to present an interpretation in the light of which one can read a characteristic aspect of the understanding of being in Presocratic philosophy. The starting point is to emphasize the idea of ​​a place within the etymology of the verb “be”: “to be” generally means ‘to be in the world’. Then the world is characterized as something implicite existing (i.e. beyond the human mind) and having a “second plane”: order hidden behind phenomena. Attempts to understand it were called investigations into the nature (of “things”), which meant the real foundation of the world and its active source – something that internally constitutes all sensual objects, providing building materials, structures and laws of development. Against this background (interpretive context), the understanding of being is defined as an element of nature – something identifiable in a distributive way and always in connection with (dependent) with self-contained nature. This element can be understood in two ways: as an object accessible to the senses taken together with the constituting nature, e.g. concrete tree, or the very internal nature, e.g. fire (Heraclitus) or four basic elements (Empedocles) from which sensual objects originate or consist.

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Citation rules

Katamay, R. (2021). Being as an Element of Nature in Presocratic Philosophy. Folia Philosophica, 46, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.31261/fp.12269

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Vol. 46 (2021)
Published: 2022-04-21


ISSN: 1231-0913
eISSN: 2353-9445
Ikona DOI 10.31261/fp

Publisher
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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